One Winning Ticket worth $290 Million

mstexmex · #1 07-03-04, 03:12 AM

One Person wins $290 Mega Millions Jackpot Lottery, Ticket purchased in Massachusetts.

I wonder if it was John Kerry????

ATLANTA -- A single winning ticket was sold in Friday's record $290 million Mega Millions lottery drawing.

The ticket _ 10-25-38-39-50 and the Mega Ball 12 _ was bought in Massachusetts, said Georgia lottery spokesman J.B. Landroche. Other states that participate in the lottery are Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

The winner came after the jackpot had gotten so high that many people said they couldn't afford not to try.

Quick-moving lines formed at convenience stores and gas stations hours before the 11-state drawing as players tried to get a piece of the nearly unimaginable prize.

"People who never play are playing now," said Karen Cooley as she waited in line to buy 10 Mega Millions tickets at a store in downtown Atlanta. "I believe I'm going to hit it. No one has won in Atlanta yet, and I think I'll be the first one."

The $290 million is the highest Mega Millions prize in the game's history, exceeding the previous high of $239 million in February.

The biggest single-ticket winner was a Powerball jackpot of $314.9 million awarded on Christmas Day 2002 to a West Virginia man. But Mega Millions' predecessor, the Big Game, had a multiway prize of $363 million in May 2000.

Despite 135 million-to-1 odds, a $1 ticket sometimes pays for itself by fueling the hopes of lottery risk-takers who dream of that kind of instant wealth, said Ed Story, who filled out a ticket form in Atlanta.

"I saw a guy walk in, and he didn't even know how to play a ticket. He put down $50," he said.

Each time the lottery grows larger, more people think about spending a couple of dollars on the off chance they'll get a share of the big pot, said David Gale, executive director of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, a nonprofit industry group.

"You don't have a chance if you don't buy a ticket, and someone is going to win eventually," Gale said. "It's fun and exciting to talk to your friends and imagine what you would do with all this money."

Mega Millions: http://www.megamillions.com/